I wonder if you've ever woken up in the morning and been determined to start another diet (and actually stick to it this time), but a co-worker or friend offers you some muffins or other yummy treats that seem absolutely impossible for you to resist? Your good intentions seem to immediately fly out of the window, along with those of everybody else around you, as you all immediately launch yourselves at the sweet, fattening treats, eager to get your sugary 'fix' to help you get through the day.
Why is it that we find it so difficult to resist these tasty delicious treats? Why can't we stop thinking about how heavenly those goodies will taste, and why doesn't that feeling go away if we just try our best to ignore it?
We subconsciously train our brain to develop (sometimes very unhelpful) habits.
When we taste delicious food (such as the treats that you've just been imagining - sorry!), our brain releases chemicals into our bloodstream, and the effect is very similar to the effect that can come from using drugs such as morphine or heroin. Our brain remembers the 'high' from our previous experiences with fat and sugar and wants to experience it again. The next time that particular food is available to us we want to eat it again to get the same taste pleasure, and we do the same thing again the next time too...each time reinforcing the instant “if I eat this, I'll get instant pleasure” reaction.
The ongoing cycle of eating and gaining pleasure creates a very powerful neural pathway in our brain. Over time, that pathway becomes stronger and stronger and the “eat food / gain pleasure” habit can be very hard to break. We naturally want to continue to seek out foods that bring us pleasure. In a battle between willpower (wanting to be slim) and imagination (we can almost taste how delicious that food will be based on our previous experiences of it), unfortunately imagination will win every time. This makes weight loss really quite difficult when we rely on willpower and diet programmes alone.
Hypnosis helps us to retrain our brain to develop more useful, empowering habits.
Thanks to hypnosis, we can work with our subconscious mind to break the cycle of any unhelpful habit. We can use hypnosis to overcome the power that those unhealthy and fattening foods have over us – despite the pleasure they may have brought us in the past.
By spending just a few moments in hypnosis, we can change the way we feel about delicious but unhelpful foods, and we don't need to suffer any cravings at all by not eating those foods. In fact, we feel as though we've made the choice ourselves to not even desire these unhelpful foods.
Just imagine...using hypnosis you can finally be completely in control around food!
How to change your current eating habits and achieve weight loss.
Using hypnosis you can make simple, ongoing, beneficial lifestyle changes so much easier. Here's an NLP technique you might like to use to help you focus on healthier eating:
• Sit or lay down where you'll be warm and comfortable and not be disturbed.
• Close your eyes and focus on your gentle breathing.
• Allow your mind and body to relax.
• In your mind's eye see two groups of food side by side. The food on the left is full of really unhealthy, unhelpful fattening, sugary, greasy foods. These are foods that have made you bigger, fatter, heavier, unhealthy, are clogging your arteries and making you unhappy. Ensure you include any foods here that you habitually eat that have made you as big as you are now. Really allow yourself to see the sugar and fat dripping from these foods.
• Look at the food on the right now. Here you see tasty, healthy, helpful foods. Foods that you like. Foods that are made flavoursome by the use of herbs and spices. Smell how good they smell! See all of the beautiful bright colours. Notice how fresh and tempting everything looks, and as you do so your mouth begins to water.
• Look back at the food on the left now. See how disgusting all of that fat and sugar is. See all of the colour drain away from the food until it all looks just black and white, dull and dim. Feel the effects that type of food has had on your body until now. Feel how tight your clothes have become. Feel how heavy you've become. Feel how sluggish you've become. Really allow yourself to feel these sensations in your body. Notice that food beginning to move away from you now. Notice it getting smaller and smaller as it moves into the distance, moving away and away. Notice how it's lost all appeal to you.
• Look back at the food on the right now. See the kinds of foods there that are helpful and nutritious for you. Feel how those foods make you feel energised, empowered and inspired to become the size you want to be. Feel all of that goodness entering every part of your body, nourishing and energising you completely. Notice how those foods are making you feel slimmer and healthier.
• Imagine yourself at the size you want to be, wearing the kinds of clothes you want to wear. Step into that image of yourself and feel how wonderful it feels to be the new healthy, slim you. Feel how good it feels as you seem to simply glide along the street, seeing friends and family who compliment you on the way you look now. You feel so happy and excited about all of the changes you've made to alter the way you feel about yourself.
• Imagine some time has passed now and you've been at your ideal weight for some time. Take a look back now at what it is that you changed in your life for you to achieve and maintain your goal. You've changed your food preference to healthy, nutritious food, always saying a definite “no” to fattening, sugary and starchy foods. Your portions are smaller. You plan your food shopping and each meal carefully. You sleep well and exercise regularly. You're consistent and determined, and if you're ever side-tracked you forgive yourself and you get straight back on track.
Making the decision to change a few subconscious habits in your daily diet and lifestyle need not be stressful. Diets and weight loss programmes are not the same as they used to be when weight loss was about depriving yourself of everything that tasted good for the sake of achieving little, if any, long-term benefit. Hypnosis and NLP weight loss programmes don't restrict any foods, and instead suggest simple but powerful modifications to your subconscious mind, leaving you feeling empowered and inspired as you see your weight loss happening, providing long-term achievable results for you.
To enjoy a free sample weight loss hypnosis session, please visit: http://www.lyndascrivener.com/free-hypnosis-download
I began using hypnosis in 1999 when my youngest son was a year old. At that time he was covered in ezema and naturally didn't sleep well at night as he was so itchy. My husband and I used to get up to him between 6 and 9 times every night to help him in his distress, and this nightly routine of very broken sleep went on for three years. I have an older son too, who was a very bright and busy toddler and naturally wanted my full attention during the day, regardless of the amount of sleep I'd had. I began to use self-hypnosis to help me get through each day - soon realising the amazing benefits that hypnosis can bring. I quickly felt quite rested after each hypnosis session and also much less stressed.
When my boys were in high school, I decided I wanted to take the best hypnotherapy training available so that I could help others benefit from hypnosis too. I trained at the University of London with a Harley Street practitioner in 2009, gaining my Diploma in Hypnotherapy (and Smoking Cessation Specialist Certificate). I am registered with the General Hypnotherapy Register (GHR) in the UK, and the National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH) in the USA.
I have my own clinic in Diss, Norfolk, England where I see clients on a one-to-one basis and help with a variety of issues, but I specialise in stress, anxiety and depression, along with weight loss and smoking cessation. For more information please visit: http://www.lyndascrivener.com/
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